Wednesday, August 23, 2006
ATI Unleashes The New Performance King for Gamers

Most powerful consumer GPU, new GDDR4 and fansink technology promise the best game performance using half the processors of other solutions.

ATI announced today its new
flagship graphics card family, the Radeon X1950 series. The new Radeon X1950 XTX
and Radeon X1950 CrossFire Edition work together or individually to deliver the
ultimate gaming performance available today. Even in "extreme high definition"
resolutions, the Radeon X1950 family beats competing single or dual-slot solutions
using only half the processors, accordin gto ATI.

On September
14th, both the Radeon X1950 XTX and Radeon X1950 CrossFire Edition will ship from
retailers, system integrators, with an estimated street price of US$449 or EUR399
(VAT included) for each card. The Radeon X1950 family will also be available
shortly from leading OEM vendors, including Dell.

Along with high frame rates, the Radeon X1950 family delivers high image
quality. ATI's graphics processors provide the ability to combine FP16 High
Dynamic Range effects with anti-aliasing to render the most realistic game
environments possible.

The Radeon X1950 employs the latest memory technology of GDDR4. With an effective data rate of 2 GHz, the new cards are easily
capable of rendering fast frame rates at high resolutions, or maximizing image
quality settings for gamers running at more mainstream resolutions. Accompanying
the addition of GDDR4, the Radeon X1950 also introduces a new fansink that results
in cooler, quieter operation.

The GPU is manufactured with the 90nm process and includes 384 million transistors.

The Radeon X1950 provides comprehensive compatibility for the latest technologies:

For games: Get what you pay for - single-slot cards that make use of two GPUs rely
on driver profiles to ensure gamers get the best performance from the card. Like
any dual-GPU solution, scaling can vary wildly between games, resulting in gamers
making use of only a fraction of the hardware paid for. A single Radeon X1950 XTX
delivers 100 percent performance, 100 percent of the time in single-card mode
without the need to rely on driver profiles, so gamers can push the card to its
limits in every game, delivering the best value for their money. The Radeon X1950
series are also supported by ATI's Catalyst suite of software for CrossFire
gaming, ensuring gamers have easy ongoing access to software updates for
performance, stability and added features.

For multimedia: Making use of ATI's Avivo technology, the Radeon X1950 family
delivers ATI's highest performing video decode of the latest high-definition video
formats. The Radeon X1950 family is also capable of displaying one billion colors,
or 10-bit throughout the graphics pipeline. Lastly, the Radeon X1950 is also
HDCP-compliant, including a built-in EEPROM and HDCP key.

ATI also announced today that it is bringing high performing graphics cards at
very attractive price points to all segments by way of the new Radeon X1900 XT
256MB, Radeon X1650 PRO, and Radeon X1300 XT.